That’s a wide margin in racing standards, and that’s what can happen when the final 112.5 miles are run without a caution flag.

What we learned in a race with only five cautions for 23 laps:

Long green-flag runs still prevalent

The first 112 laps of the race were run caution-free, and after four cautions over a 70-lap stretch, it went another 139 laps without the wave of the yellow flag.

Only one of the cautions was for an accident—if you can call it that. Travis Kvapil scraped the wall but was able to keep going.

“It's just experience and really good drivers and teams,” Kahne said. “The cars drive awesome. The competition is so strong right now. … The drivers keep the cars under them.”

Sprint Cup cars have enough downforce that they’re easier to drive than the cars of five years ago. They also appear to be more equal, which means less passing as drivers cannot get the momentum they need to make a pass—they must wait for a mistake.

So the only way to get around someone is to wreck them, and drivers aren’t willing to do that.

Denny Hamlin, who finished second Sunday, said he believes drivers are so concerned about points and the impact of a crash on their points position that they are driving more judiciously.

The points system implemented in 2011 has a bigger impact on a driver, when compared to the points for the winner, than in the past.

“You know if you wreck and you finish in the 30s, you're going to take 10 races to get that back,” Hamlin said. “I think everyone's just a little bit more patient on restarts, as crazy as that sounds.

“It's just not as wild on restarts as it used to be a couple years ago. Everyone is minding their P's and Q's, trying to get the best finish out of their day, knowing the one thing you can't overcome in a race is a crash.”

Hendrick is back

Hendrick Motorsports didn’t win a race during the first 11 races of the season but has rattled off three consecutive victories—with Jimmie Johnson winning two weeks ago at Darlington and the Sprint All-Star Race last week, and then Kahne winning on Sunday.

Not only was it Kahne’s first victory with Hendrick, but it also came on a day when all four Hendrick cars ran well. Dale Earnhardt Jr. finished sixth and Jeff Gordon was seventh. Johnson was 11th after a late pit-road penalty knocked him off the lead lap.

Kahne and Gordon have struggled this year as far as overcoming problems, so it’s rare for Hendrick to have just two drivers in the top 10 in the standings—Earnhardt Jr. is fourth and Johnson is fifth.

“You’ve got so many good cars up there, you look at guys that have a bad night, if you can get four cars in the top 11 in this sport today, you're doing pretty good,” team owner Rick Hendrick said. “All of them ran good at Darlington. We were good at Martinsville. We've had good races.

“I think the proof's in the pudding. We've got to finish. We can't just run in the top 10, we've got to get them all in finish in the top 10.”

Tony Stewart an enigma

If there’s one driver who doesn’t know if he will run well or struggle, it’s defending series champion Tony Stewart.

He finished three laps down in 25th at Charlotte, and while some of that could be attributed to contact on pit road from Brad Keselowski, Stewart struggled even without the pit-road incident.

Stewart at one point told his team he was fighting as hard as he could but the car just wouldn’t go faster.

It marked the third time in the last six races that Stewart finished 24th or worse. In two of the other races, he finished third. And he had a pair of wins in the first five events.

Does he have a reason to be worried?

Maybe so. The tracks where he’s finished 24th or worse—Texas, Talladega and Charlotte—are all in the Chase For The Sprint Cup.

Ganassi still struggling

Chip Ganassi arrived at the Coca-Cola 600 with a big smile on his face. He had just come from celebrating Dario Franchitti’s victory in the Indianapolis 500.

But he probably left Charlotte with bit of frustration as Juan Pablo Montoya finished two laps down in 20th and Jamie McMurray was three laps down in 21st.

While he has celebrated plenty of wins in IndyCar and sports car racing organization, his NASCAR operation has not performed up to expectations in 2011 and 2012.

Montoya is 18th in the standings and McMurray 21st. They have combined to lead laps in only three events all season.

They have changed their technical directors as well as their team managers and McMurray said he believes the team at least knows the direction it wants to go this year compared to last year.

But they’re going to need improvement soon to get back among the NASCAR elite.